A letter to the editor describes a "colored Confederate veteran", the Reverend Daniel Brooks. He was a free man, and went with Capt. Bill Corbett's company in May of 1861. We're not told what his role in the company was, only that he "served with that company in 5th NC regiment" and later in the engineering department. He became a Methodist preacher after the war.
Monroe Gooch passes away, and is named "Soldier of the Confederacy" by this newspaper. He is "A Gallant negro", a "comrade-servant" for the other vets, an "ex-Confederate soldier", "faithful servant" and "beloved comrade". We've seen this type of terminology a number of times in these post-war newspapers, where a man who is stated to have been a slave during the war is also called a soldier, so it's not as if they don't know what role he played and just made a mistake. They had no issue with a man being both.
As 1922 began, South Carolina was discussing pensions "for certain faithful negroes who were engaged in the service of the state during the Confederate war."
Alf Whiting is the latest in a long line of former slaves who had Confederate vets as pallbearers. According to this account, Whiting "served in the Confederate army, attended every Confederate reunion and selected his own pall bearers." He was a POW during the war, refused to take the oath of allegiance, and was only released on $6,000 bond.
New Britain herald. [volume] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, March 18, 1922
